Iago Aspas scored equaliser with arm for Celta Vigo against Barcelona, who battled to a point after Sergi Roberto was sent off at Balaidos.
Match Events
Barcelona twice led through Ousmane Demeble and Paco Alcacer but Iago Aspas earned Celta Vigo a deserved 2-2 draw against Ernesto Valverde's much-changed side after Sergi Roberto was sent off.
Casting an eye towards Saturday's Copa del Rey showdown against Sevilla, Valverde named an experimental line-up and started with a host of regulars, including Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez on the bench.
Somewhat expectedly, Barca lacked their usual fluency in attack and a disorganised defensive showing coughed up glorious chances to Suarez's countryman Maxi Gomez and Brais Mendez before Ousmane Dembele dispatched his maiden LaLiga goal for the visitors in the 36th minute.
Jonny Otta brought Balaidos to its feet with an equaliser in first-half stoppage time and Celta were in the ascendancy until Messi entered the fray to instantly lift the Barcelona performance.
He had no direct involvement in Alcacer's scrambled 64th-minute goal that was not enough to increase Barca's lead at the summit 14 points.
Roberto deservedly being sent off for a crude foul on the relentless Aspas did not help matters and Celta's star man was gifted his 20th goal of the season by an error from the otherwise impressive Marc-Andre ter Stegen eight minutes from time – the officials deciding not to punish the final touch coming off his arm.
Line-ups
Celta de Vigo XI: Sergio Álvarez, J.Castro , S.Gómez, Roncaglia, Lobotka, Jozabed, D.Wass, B.Méndez, M.Gómez, Aspas, Sisto
Subs: Rubén Blanco, Fontàs, Robert Mazán, Cabral, Radoja, L.Boyé, Mor
Barcelona XI: Marc-André ter Stegen, Semedo, Digne, Yerry Mina, Vermaelen, D.Suárez, Coutinho, Paulinho, A.Gomes, O.Dembélé, Alcácer
Subs: Jasper Cillessen, Alba, A.Vidal, Umtiti, S.Roberto, Suárez, Messi
Kuncors
319
Barcelona's unbeaten run in la liga continues
Henrilar
300
This is not Barca! Long pass, low possession, No counterattack. Terrible pass, no purpose, no accuracy, just wasting time. After out for UCL, players lost their motivation, even is Messi! Players are afraid of failure! Come on! We are BARCA!! Fight for honor!!!!!
M-Yusuf
266
Another day, another robbery.. Uefalona, huh??
Suche
166
I don’t understand this Barca players. No chemistry at all. Though I’m happy with the draw but what was Sergio Roberto thinking? Getting a red card. Allow him to score after all, you are leading. Play with 11 men and score again. Been a substitute and getting a red card, what pressure are you putting on your team mates that have been on the field. Who knows, he might miss or Ter stergen might save it. And Messi not helping with the defence knowing they are a man down is a no no. Imagine 11 men against 9 men? Barca players are really trying and these are our reserved teams playing.
Redwan18
78
Made my day 😂
Messifan19873
59
I don’t understand this Barca players. No chemistry at all. Though I’m happy with the draw but what was Sergio Roberto thinking? Getting a red card. Allow him to score after all, you are leading. Play with 11 men and score again. Been a substitute and getting a red card, what pressure are you putting on your team mates that have been on the field. Who knows, he might miss or Ter stergen might save it. And Messi not helping with the defence knowing they are a man down is a no no. Imagine 11 men against 9 men? Barca players are really trying and these are our reserved teams playing.
Is Messi and defender no messi does more for the team then most yet you here saying messi didn't defend he Is a striker not a defender and with the handball goal from aspas messed up the win for Barcelona given Barcelona were not playing well but that equalizer shouldn't have counted plus Barcelona are saving energy for the Copa del Rey Barcelona rely on messi too much which shows Barcelona are messi dependent and show they won't last when messi retires
ADH_148
51
Right here's my review. Yeri and Verma combination was awful, they sucked Semedo in to thier errors. Mina was going for balls he can't reach and got beaten leaving unmarked players and space, causing Semedo to overwork. We've seen how Pique does it, he is solid and if there's one thing he never does is going for a challenge or ball he know he won't win b'cause if he loses it, he'll lose position and space, which Mina was failing to do. I don't blame him, for a start he was good, the team that played todag hasn't played together before so it was easy getting along. Paulinho was wasteful amd sometimes he's like a robot, he can't turn to face the other direction witb ball🤷🏽♂. Dembele is good, he's adapting well. Gomes made a few awful passes one of which resulted in a goal for the opponents. Coutinho and Denis were amazing with their feet. Denis should play more often. Digne still needs to work on a lot e.g he was quite absent in the defense during the opponents' attacks and counter attacks. Paco was involved much but gave a beautiful assist to Dembele. Ter saved our asses a lot today, it could have gone sideways. Messi, well he changed the game untill Roberto was sent off. With 10 men were struggling even more. Vidal, i didn't see much of what he did, we were 10 men already so u knw....i think our coach needs to come up with a rotational plan thts good for the team, he needs to start with small changes, playing all the players who haven't played together all at once is risky but anyway, the lg is ours. Agh my fingers are hurting , wish we could make video chats in th group
hasanbohra
21
Ter stegen was absolutely great in this match can't understand why when Vigo player low crossed the ball inside the penalty area why didn't ter stegen went on for the ball at full stretch.He just dived for nothing and then at back post celta vigo player tapped it in and ter stegen was very much angry on something.There was no need for stegen to punch the ball when Vigo scored their second.Stegen should have catch the ball instead of punching it when a celta vigo player is in front of you.Nevertheless he saved Barca again